Middletown landlords organizing

MIDDLETOWN — A Middletown property owner says she plans to fight city hall by forming a landlords' association.

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By HEATHER YAKIN

recordonline.com

By HEATHER YAKIN

Posted Dec. 29, 2009 at 2:00 AM

By HEATHER YAKIN

Posted Dec. 29, 2009 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

MIDDLETOWN — A Middletown property owner says she plans to fight city hall by forming a landlords' association.

Jody Moraski, who owns five multi-family houses in the city, said the recent pattern of enforcement has to go. The first notice landlords get of any issues on their properties, she said, is a summons ordering them to court. She figures if the landlords band together, they'll have some clout with the city.

Moraski said she has spoken with Public Works Commissioner Jacob Tawil, who oversees code enforcement.

Tawil said that's not practical: You send someone a letter, and it takes a week to get there and another week for the problem to be corrected.

"The city will look like garbage, like a Dumpster," Tawil said. "It's not an efficient way of dealing with it. You can't keep playing this game."

The city sends warning letters when it's legally required under state fire and building codes and city property-maintenance codes, said Corporation Counsel Alex Smith. Middletown has been on an enforcement push for the past year, focused largely on the 287 multi-family homes in the city. In 2009, the city won 185 convictions and brought in $52,930 in fines.

Another landlord, Steve Catanzaro, has been battling the city for months over orders to paint over original woodwork with fire-resistant paint and replace stained-glass windows in his 100-year-old multifamily house on Highland Avenue. He likes the idea of a landlords' group, and said it's something they did years ago. The landlords would also get together with city officials to try to work out their differences, he said.

Catanzaro and Moraski say the city is squeezing good landlords, but problem landlords will ignore the violations, because the fines are cheaper than doing the repairs.

Moraski said one tenant brought in roaches and bedbugs and dumped trash at her property on Cortland Avenue, and she was cited despite her efforts to clean it up.

"Of course the tenants did it," said code enforcer Ed Steenrod, but the landlord is ultimately responsible for the renters. "If they can prove the (specific) tenant did it, they can give us a deposition."

The last straw for Moraski was an early December court date where the city served her with a new summons for litter on her Linden Avenue property — dated in September.

"It bothers me because you're doing this on the pretext of cleaning up Middletown," Moraski said. "How about making the tenants responsible? The tenants have now learned to play with the system."

The landlords' association will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at the New Hampton Fire House on Route 17M.